Northern Star, And Warren And Bristol Gazette

There is an eventide in human life; a season when the eye becomes dim, and the strength decays, and when the winter of age begins to shed upon the human head its prophetic snows. It is the season of life to which the autumn is most analogous; and which it becomes, and much it would profit you, my elder brethren, to mark the instructions which the season brings. The spring and summer of your days are gone, and with them, not only joys they knew, but many of the friends who gave them. You have entered upon the autumn of your being; and whatever may have been the profusion of your spring, or the warm temperament of your summer, there is yet a season of stillness or solitude which the beneficence of heaven affords you, in which you may meditate upon the past and the future, and repose yourself for the mighty change which you are soon to undergo.

It is now you may understand the magnificent language of heaven; it mingles its voice with that of revelation—it summons you, in these hours when the leaves fall and the winter is gathering, to that evening study which the mercy of heaven has provided in the book of salvation;—and while the shadowy valley opens, which leads to the abode of death, it speaks of that love which can comfort and save, and which can conduct to those green pastures, and these still waters, where there is an eternal spring for the children of God.